TO 21

Chapter 21

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Taehyuk wiped his lips with the back of his hand, smearing bright red blood across his skin. Seo-ah had bitten him.

“Don’t come near me,” she said.

Taehyuk couldn’t believe his ears. “What did you just say?”

Seo-ah’s eyes were completely hollow. She barely even knew what she was saying; all she knew was that she couldn’t bear the thought of anything entering her space again—even if it was him.

Trembling, she turned away. She could have sworn she smelled Go-eun’s perfume lingering on Taehyuk as he held her—the very scent she had been scrubbing her skin raw to erase. It was entirely her mind playing tricks on her, but her whole body locked up anyway. Images of Taehyuk and Go-eun embracing at the airport replayed on a loop inside her head.

“Lee Seo-ah.”

Taehyuk took a step toward her, but she cut him off with a sharp, frantic edge in her voice.

“I said don’t come any closer! And don’t you dare lay a finger on me for the time being!”

“You can always just have another baby. What’s the big deal?”

“What?”

Seo-ah shook uncontrollably. Young-ran, who was busy polishing apples until they gleamed, nonchalantly tossed out the words without even looking up.

Seo-ah had tried calling her mother repeatedly after that day, but Young-ran had deliberately ignored every single call. In the end, Seo-ah had no choice but to track her down at her fruit shop. It was the first time she had visited since getting married.

Seeing Young-ran looking so unaffected—healthy and full of life, even—sent a surge of rage straight through Seo-ah.

She confronted her mother, asking if she had any idea what she had done. If Young-ran hadn’t shown up at the house that day… maybe Seo-ah wouldn’t be living like a prisoner forced into silence right now.

Maybe she wouldn’t have been framed like a liar.

Seo-ah pleaded with Young-ran to go back to Seunghi and set the record straight—to explain that it wasn’t true. But Young-ran recoiled in utter disgust.

“I am never meeting that woman again. How can anyone be so aggressive? I thought I was going to suffocate just standing in the same room with her!”

“Mom…”

Seo-ah was the one who would have to endure Seunghi’s cold, suffocating glares for the rest of her life. Yet Young-ran couldn’t have cared less.

“You can just get pregnant again. Stop making such a fuss out of it. You said it was early on anyway, right? Miscarriages happen all the time in the early stages without people even realizing it. You were just unlucky enough to find out so soon…”

“What?”

Hearing her mother call it ‘unlucky’ made Seo-ah’s vision blur. She couldn’t remember much of what happened next. She simply snapped, grabbing whatever fruit was on the display racks and throwing them, knocking everything over.

“Aah! Has this girl lost her mind?! I have to sell these! What is wrong with you?!”

But nothing could stop Seo-ah.

“You got paid, didn’t you?! You got enough money so you don’t even have to sell this stupid fruit!” Seo-ah screamed at the top of her lungs.

It was laughable, really.

She had been completely powerless to say a single word in front of Seunghi, yet here she was, taking all her rage out on Young-ran.

A wave of intense self-loathing washed over her. She felt like she was no different from her mother. She had turned into the kind of mother who couldn’t even raise her voice or throw a fit to protect her own child.

After that incident, Seo-ah developed a mild case of OCD alongside her panic disorder. Everything felt filthy to her—even Taehyuk.

Having given up on everything, Seo-ah lived her days numb on medication. Because of that, the thought of escaping her situation never even crossed her mind. Or rather, she simply lacked the courage to face reality head-on. Whenever she tried to look at her life, the first thing that came to mind wasn’t Seunghi or Go-eun.

It was her baby—the child she had failed to protect. A child whose very existence everyone denied, and whose reality she herself had been forced to bury. The sheer shock and guilt of her first pregnancy ending in a sudden miscarriage clouded her ability to think straight.

Because she was a married woman of childbearing age, the clinic prescribed birth control pills alongside her anti-anxiety medication, citing the need to prevent any accidental pregnancies. Even though she wasn’t intimate with Taehyuk at the time, she took the pills religiously every day. She was terrified—terrified of getting pregnant again, and terrified of being held by Taehyuk.

She had no confidence that she could protect a baby if she had another one. Seo-ah was too young, too naive, and far too deeply wounded.

Her mental state withered away to the point where she couldn’t even consider sitting down to talk things through with Taehyuk. Because all of this had happened before he could truly settle into his role as her husband and family, Seo-ah became increasingly isolated. Paralyzed by fear, she was tormented by nightmares every night, constantly dreaming of bleeding out.

The days were a relentless cycle of pain and misery. Unaware of what Seo-ah was going through, Taehyuk slowly drifted away from her. The quick steps he used to take coming home from work, briefly excited by the thought of having a wife waiting for him, soon slowed down and turned back.

He retreated into his old ways, becoming a workaholic once again. Unless it was absolutely necessary, he barely spoke a word to her.

He kept a comfortable distance from Seo-ah, coming to realize that anything excessive only felt like a burden.

When they eventually resumed their intimate relationship much later, it felt like nothing more than a routine chore to him. Driven by Junghyun’s quiet hopes for a grandchild and Seunghi’s blunt demands for an heir, Taehyuk sat Seo-ah down for a serious conversation.

He told her they would only be intimate once a month.

Seo-ah didn’t say a word, but she didn’t push him away either. She was passing through a long, dark tunnel. Ironically, Taehyuk’s cold, detached nature actually helped her. Though it was painful, it gave her the space to reflect on herself. And on the day she finally stopped taking all her medication, Seo-ah came to a clear realization: to survive, she had to leave Taehyuk.

Even if it cost her her own heart—or something far greater—she had to get away from him.

“Are you feeling any better?”

When Seo-ah opened her eyes, the first person she saw was Junghyun. Seeing his grim, heavy expression, her eyes went wide.

“F-Father-in-law…”

As Seo-ah tried to push herself up, a sharp, searing pain shot through her lower body, as if she were being stabbed with a red-hot poker. The horrifyingly familiar pain made her head spin.

No… it can’t be. Please, no.

Seo-ah frantically reached down to touch her lower belly. As if reading her thoughts, Junghyun spoke up slowly.

“The baby is safe. Don’t worry.”

At those words, tears welled up in Seo-ah’s eyes. She had been too terrified to even cry, but now the tears spilled over and streamed down her cheeks. Truth be told, she hadn’t even allowed herself to be happy about the pregnancy, afraid she would grow too attached. She had deliberately closed her heart off, terrified that harboring such feelings might somehow cause the baby to slip away.

“I-Is that really true?”

Junghyun gave a solemn nod.

“T-Thank goodness… Thank goodness…”

Seo-ah clasped her hands over her chest, offering endless silent prayers of gratitude to whoever was listening.

“Taehyuk will be here soon.”

At the mention of Taehyuk, Seo-ah snapped her head up.

“Did you… call him?”

“Of course I did. You’re carrying a child—a guardian needs to be here.”

The word guardian struck Seo-ah’s chest with a painful pang.

She cast her gaze downward.

“Is there a reason he shouldn’t come?”

Taehyuk is coming. Seo-ah replayed those words in her mind over and over. The baby was safe, which meant everything would proceed according to their agreement.

She would leave the baby behind and divorce Taehyuk…

Seo-ah thought of the child she had barely managed to protect. Then she remembered that during all those terrifying moments when the baby was in danger, no one had been by her side.

“My dear.”

Junghyun called out to the visibly anxious Seo-ah. She looked up and stared straight at him. It was the first time she had ever looked at his face so closely for this long. Unsurprisingly, his sharp, intelligent features and strong frame were the spitting image of Taehyuk.

It felt as though Taehyuk himself were standing right in front of her. In that instant, Seo-ah’s pupils contracted, and her breath hitched in her throat.

“Are you alright?” Junghyun asked, his brow furrowing with concern.

Heavy tears spilled involuntarily from Seo-ah’s eyes.

“I’ll go get the doctor.”

As Junghyun started to rise from his chair, Seo-ah reached out and grabbed his sleeve.

“Please save me, Father-in-law.”

Her tear-choked plea brought Junghyun to a sudden halt.

“What… what do you mean by that? Is someone trying to hurt you?”

His expression hardened as he sat back down in front of her.

“Is this about Go-eun? I’ll make sure to sternly warn your mother-in-law about her again. I explicitly told her never to bring that woman into my house.”

Seo-ah shook her head.

“Will you… believe everything I’m about to tell you?”

“What are you saying?”

“This isn’t the first time this has happened.”

At her words, Junghyun’s eyes shook. But Seo-ah’s gaze remained rock-steady. She had already made up her mind: she was going to protect this baby no matter what.

“A year ago, I was pregnant with a child.”

“What?”

“And back then, too, Mother and that woman, Jung Go-eun, were at the house.”

This was complete news to Junghyun. His jaw set into a rigid, hard line.

“Are you saying…”

“I fell down the stairs back then, too. Right on the very same spot where I fell today. And I lost the baby…”

Overwhelmed by emotion, Seo-ah’s voice trembled. But she knew she couldn’t break down crying now.

“Someone definitely pushed me that day. And the only people in the house at the time were Mother, myself, and that woman, Jung Go-eun.”